Samrat Nepal

Location: Nepal, Asia
Departure Point: Kathmandu
Put-In-Point: Jhirkhu
Take-Out-Point: Lamasangu Dam
Outward Travel: 5 hours
Best Season: Nov-Dec, Mar-May
2 Days: Kathmandu-Kathmandu.

It’s 3½ hours drive from Kathmandu. Bhote Kosi is a beautiful mountain river without a doubt the full action-packed short white-water run in Nepal. ‘Bhote’ roughly translates, as ‘river from Tibet’ so there are quite a lot of rivers with this name in Nepal and Bhote Kosi is the main branch of the Sun Kosi. The river drops steeply offering relentless stretches of grade III-IV white-water. Boulder gardens, small waterfalls, steep chutes, and 90degree bends are just some of the obstacles to be overcome. This river is not typical of the big volume waters of the Himalayan, it is steep and technical and requires a reactive crew.

Program

Meet at the place as per time arranged by your expedition leader/guide at the pre-departure meeting. Then we leave by our private transports to the river put-in point of the trip. This is a spectacular drive through villages and if weather permits, you will have fabulous mountain views i.e. Babil, Langtang, and Gauri Shanker ranges, etc. upon arrival at the campsite lunch will be served. After early lunch, your expedition leader/guide will give a safety talk and provide all paddling gears to participants for the trip. On the first day, we are paddling about 3 ½ hours of pure white water. After a long series of grade III rapids, we drop into the first grade IV known as Gerbil in the Plumbing. From here there is a long, technical rapid called ‘Frog in a Blender. After this rapid, we settle down for about twenty feet, and then it’s back into the soup with a long series of grade III+ and IV- drops which lead us into a nifty little rapid called Carnal Knowledge of a Deviant Nature. The remaining ten kilometers of river is a nonstop series of grade III and IV drops terminating into short pools with the next drop just a few feet away. The river flows through a beautiful narrow canyon with lush green vegetation and waterfalls coming in from the steep stone walls. At the bottom of this stretch is a rapid called ExLax. Just before we hit the Bazaar of Barabise we load all the gears onto our bus and drive back to our campsite. Enjoy with hard and soft drinks, then dinner.

Early morning rise with a hot cup of tea/coffee brush teeth and have breakfast then pack your gears. Here once again you have the second chance to show how your raft team can work well together in challenging rapids. We have lunch on the river bank and continue the action until the take–out point. We run the top stretch, today instead of getting out at Barabise we continue down through the center of Bazaar and onto a short flat stretch. Upon reaching the dam, the entire gradient of the last kilometer fulminates into fifty meters of incredibly steep and technical rapid known as ‘The Great Wall’. The Great Wall’s one redeeming feature is that there is a pool at the bottom because right after the pool is an incredibly rapid called ‘Liquid Bliss’, which leads directly into a rapid call ‘Fake Tight Go Left’, which leads directly into another rapid called ‘My God, What to do?’ The trip ends with a bang on a long series of drops known as ‘Dazed and Confused’. Without a doubt, this is some of the finest whitewater rafting to be had anywhere. Our trip ends about midday. Once you get their load up all the gears on the bus, then travel back to Kathmandu, for 3 hours.